Gibson gives Proteas shot in the arm with England medicine

It hasn’t always been clear why foreign coaches have been so popular in international cricket recently but there have been several, obviously successful, interventions by Ottis Gibson during the ODI series in Sri Lanka that suggest the Barbadian is making a significant difference to the Proteas.

Sure, the fast bowlers have bowled attacking lines and lengths in the first 10 overs, searching for early wickets rather than dot balls, but you would expect such a tactic from a man who played the game that way himself, whether he was from Barbados or Benoni.

Gibson was appointed to the England coaching staff in the immediate aftermath of the team’s humiliation at the 2015 Cricket World Cup, during which they played cricket from a bygone era, virtually shotless batsmen crawling to woefully inadequate totals with bowlers and fielders waiting for something to happen rather than attempting to take control.

He witnessed the transformation of England’s ODI team, from premature World Cup elimination at the hands of Bangladesh to the most exciting team in the world within 18 months.

Now they have added consistency to the flair they have, rightly being ranked No 1 and justifiably favourites to win the next edition of the tournament on home soil in 2019.

Some hard decisions had to be made. Big names were discarded and they weren’t happy about it.

But a brand-new approach was required with a new breed of fearless, younger cricketers. It was far more straightforward for an Australian coach, Trevor Bayliss, to trample over reputations than it might have been for an Englishman.

Even if it was only brushing off the criticism.

And Gibson had an intimate look at the process.

SA don’t need anything like that sort of makeover. They have scored six of the 19 totals of 400+ in ODI cricket, four of them in the past five years. India have five and England three.

They have wicket-taking bowlers and remain one of the world’s best fielding sides (although they could be better).

Gibson’s influence is not over the team culture or approach, but over individuals.

JP Duminy has had more chances to establish himself in the national side than most. For more than a decade there has been a consistent desire from captains and coaches to have him in the team.

If his results matched the goodwill heaped on him by his colleagues, he would be established as an all-time great.

But too often he appeared ponderous and uncertain, the flashes of brilliance coming in the nick of time to save his place in the XI.

With vast experience comes expectation and Duminy’s recurring fault in recent years has been attempting to “keep up” with the game, batting first or second, rather than attempting to “get ahead” of the game.

England and India have both demonstrated regularly that boundaries need to be pushed as accepted pars and norms fall away the fastest yet.

Faf du Plessis said after the first ODI against Sri Lanka that he and Gibson had spoken to Duminy about “taking a few more risks”. The results have been immediate.

He accelerated when he could easily have adopted a conservative approach in chasing a modest score and finished unbeaten on 53 from just 32 balls. In the second game he contributed 32 from 29 balls and on Sunday he delivered his best yet — 92 from only 70 deliveries.

Gibson told him he was still a crucial part of the World Cup big picture, but he also had no hesitation in telling him that he needed to trust himself more, that underachievement would not be tolerated and that he would be replaced if it continued — an arm around the shoulder and a kick up the backside simultaneously. The same almost certainly applied to David Miller.

Winning games is important, of course, but winning them emphatically has become just as important for what lies ahead.

It is unlikely that a good defence and selective jabs in a carefully planned bout against England and India will suffice in June 2019.

New Zealand already play the power game too and Australia will get their act together soon enough.

On good batting pitches the era of landing big blows throughout the match rather than at the end is upon us. Duminy, Du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and Miller will all have to raise their output by 20% to make up for the loss of AB de Villiers, while Hashim Amla, no longer the great player he was, will need to be carefully managed through the next 10 months.

Even at 60% of what he once was, he is the best we have.

Gibson is acutely aware of the Proteas’ history, but he was not part of it, and that may yet be his most important asset as the team prepares for another shot at World Cup redemption.